Pogge on his first game.
After an up and down season with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Justin Pogge came to Anaheim with his role clearly defined as the organization's number three goaltender.
Being anything more seems impossible, barring injuries to Jonas Hiller or Jean-Sebastien Giguere, but that hasn't stopped Pogge from setting his training camp goals high.
"I'd love to make the team," he said. "I'm doing everything they tell me to try and stick around."
Pogge saw his first action on Thursday night against the Vancouver Canucks at Honda Center. He stopped 19 of 20 shots while playing the final half of the game -- not a bad performance, but one Pogge thought could have been better.
"I felt a little slow in my first half of the period there, but picked it up in the third," he said. "I was just kind of getting the rust off."
The Ducks' third option in goal last year was David LeNeveu, who had 21 games of NHL experience before signing with Anaheim. He didn't see any NHL action behind Giguere and Hiller, but at least LeNeveu got plenty of playing time (46 games) with the Ducks' top AHL affiliate in Des Moines, Iowa.
Getting significant playing time this season could be hard for Pogge since the Ducks don't have an AHL affiliate. (The team is expected to send the plurality of its AHL players to the San Antonio Rampage, the Phoenix Coyotes' affiliate.) Regardless of where Pogge lands, it's typical for AHL teams to give the bulk of their minutes to the goalie under contract to the parent organization, which might relegate him to a backup role.
For Pogge, that's looking too far ahead.
"I'm not worried about that right now ... I guess it's just a new adventure," he said. "We'll see how it goes."
About J.P.
J.P. Hoornstra has been covering the Anaheim Ducks since 2007. Eight months after the University of Wisconsin won its third NCAA hockey championship, he was born in a frigid Madison winter. He betrayed his blue-blooded beginnings by graduating from UCLA in 2003, and welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
Leave a comment